Guardian of the Void
by Talon-Druid
Summary: What if Medivh wasn't the last Guardian? One Guardian left to summon an army to beat back the Burning Shadow that he had felt approaching. After the defeat of Archimonde, he returns, having lost his mind and intending to destroy everything.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: Warcraft III does not belong to me, almost all the characters in here with the exception of Medivh (Who will be making an appearance) do belong to me as does the plot. This is set about ten years after the death of Archimonde. It will certainly have Night Elves in and it may have Blood Elves and humans, possibly even Orcs.  

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**The Guardian of the Void**

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Chapter I: Vision of the Void

_The man staggered through the barren rocks, his eagle-feather cloak wrapped tightly around him. He was parched, he had had no water for days, no food for weeks, he persevered only through consuming the blood of the few animals he found around him. His head rang; his body ached from the endless trek through the mountains. But he had found it at last, the place he had searched for, he had spent time beyond comprehension searching for this ancient temple, thousands, millions maybe even billions of years, while the world fought against orcs, the undead and their masters, the Burning Legion, he had been out here, fleeing from Medivh and the others. They had not approved of his quest, they did not approve of seeking out power. They assumed him to be dead now; millions of years ago they had given up their search. When he had heard it had been a relief, he no longer had to kill every raven, salmon, bear, cat or shark that he saw. The Guardian's mind was jumbled, it had been like that for thousands of years, the blazing sun and biting cold had blurred his motives, blurred his memories, ripped apart his very thoughts and drove their hissing whispers into his skull, he had felt like slicing open his head sometimes, just to stop the voices, and the visions and in case his objectives were in there somewhere, hiding.  The man moved towards the temple, reflecting on how the other Guardians had been so foolish, they had all felt the burning shadow rising up, they had all felt its power, its claws stretching to every corner of Azeroth, but only he had the courage to seek out the army that could defeat the burning shadow, those of the void themselves, they possessed unlimited power, their world was a place where anything was possible, the void, nothing but darkness and magic. The man stepped up to the raised alter and began chanting, his voice causing the entire temple to tremble, his words bouncing off the pillars and the roof, all made of dark obsidian, the crystal obelisk, made of dark stone, but glowing with an inner blue light shattered, a meteorite coursing up and smashing through the roof of the temple, the temple collapsed around the Guardian, but he did not care, they would not harm him. The stars vanished as the night sky turned to a pool of complete darkness. People, no silhouettes fell down, crashing on the ground, they had no eyes or distinctive features, they were merely men and woman, made entirely of darkness. Children, standing at their feet, old people behind them. They had come from the void. The Guardian felt the power coursing through him, the power he had taken, he would summon more when the time had come but now he wanted nothing more than to defeat the burning legion and…he wasn't really sure what else…but he could not help feeling that maybe it was better if he just consigned everyone to the void. The Guardian beckoned to his army, rejuvenated and ready to sweep everything, every tree, every mountain and every person into the void. _

Selene Starfeather opened her eyes sharply and stared out upon the forest, her crossbow clutched in one hand. 

"Something is not right" She whispered, to nobody in particular. 

"Really" A deep voice replied, she turned sharply to see a Warden approach, his dark hair falling freely down his back, a similar dark tunic offsetting his pale face. Selene smiled.

"Hello Tal, it is good to have you back in the grove" She said sincerely, the Warden beamed and joined her in staring out across the horizon. Tal Nightstalker was one of the grove's most able-bodied Wardens. He was not a pacifist by nature, and was shunned by many in the Grove for his ruthless ways. 

"Hello old friend" Tal grinned "I actually came to tell you that there is a message waiting for you in the Tree of Eternity"

"Ah so you've become my maid now" Selene joked, Tal's eyes twinkled.

"If that's how you want to think of me" He replied, Selene raised an eyebrow.

"Do you know who the message is from, maid?" Selene asked, Tal nodded.

"The human city of New Dalaran" The young warden told her, Selene nodded and climbed on her Frostsaber, she waved goodbye to the warden and rode off. 

Ten minutes later, she entered the imager chamber in the massive Tree of Eternity; Selene approached the circle in the centre of the small room, examining the small upraised patch it was on silently, running over it with her eyes, tracing the magnificent patterns on the top of it. She put out her hand onto the wooden pad and pressed it, watching calmly as a light ran over her hand and the circle erupted in a blast of green energy. A human, robed elaborately in blue rose up from the green fire.

"Selene Mooncrystal, we require your aid, this morning, a group of strange beings attacked our city, we beat them back but many were injured, we sensed something ancient about them, but we can find no records of them in our files, we request the knowledge and wisdom of a Night Elf to aid us, we hope you can come" The green fire swept the man up, before vanishing into the circle.

"You shall go, Selene" A voice commanded from the doorway, the Druid of the Grove; a son of Cenarius named Nandieb trotted in, standing next to her.

"My lord, I refuse to take my sentinels to some human city! This is a crucial outpost to beat back the last remnants of the Undead!" Selene demanded, Nandieb nodded.

"I agree, your sentinels must remain here, it is settled then, you shall go alone" The Druid smirked.

"No! I cannot!" Selene yelled, Nandieb raised his claw.

"Do not raise your voice with me" He said sharply "I shall go with you" 

"You are going with me?" Selene said incredulously. The son of Cenarius nodded solemnly.

"Or you can go alone," Nandieb suggested, Selene shook her head.

"No, no I need all the help I can get" Selene sighed, the Druid smiled warmly.

"Good, good" He chuckled "You can leave at midnight, under the cover of darkness" 

Selene lay down on the wooden bed, it had been a tiring day, and she had a sneaking suspicion that this was more than just human ignorance, she lay down and tried to slip to sleep, she would need it for the coming night. Slowly, she dropped off, snoring quietly…

The wind howled and whipped around the grass, straining the branches of the trees and ancients. Selene looked around, everything was so dark, and the wind was so strong. Her night vision enabled her to see the ancients, pulling against the gale, thousands of elves walking past her. She looked upwards, the sky hung above them, devoid of stars or the moon. Selene looked all around her; she knew something was not right. 

"Nothing…not time, not space, not life or death" A voice whispered, Selene turned around to see the man, clothed in a brown robe, watching her. 

"Go to New Dalaran, I will meet you there" He hissed and turned to walk away, Selene reached out for him.

"Who are you?!" She shrieked over the wailing of the gales.

"A legend of the past" He called back before vanishing into the darkness. The wind began to shake her roughly; she grabbed hold of a branch and held on tightly.

"It is unbecoming of a priestess to snore" A voice told her, she looked up into the face of Tal; it was him that had been shaking her. 

"I quite agree" An older voice of Nandieb said from behind him "I still think you should use a bucket of water"

"No" Selene said quickly "I'm awake" Tal nodded and straightened his black tunic.

"Good, we're leaving in ten minutes" Tal told her, Selene rubbed her head.

"Don't tell me you are coming too" She asked, Tal nodded.

"Yes, I am" He told her, Selene scowled at the two.

"I'll have to arrange somebody to command the Sentinels while we're away" She told them

"Done!" Nandieb replied gleefully "Demon Hunter Semitur Flamekiller and that huntress, Alara Moonwatcher are commanding the grove and the Sentinels for now" Selene nodded wearily. 

"Right then, I'll just get dressed" Selene told them, the Warden and Druid turned away sharply, dashing out of the room slightly too quickly. Selene grinned quietly and got dressed, climbing on her Frostsaber tiger outside and joining the two.

"Ready to go?" Tal asked enthusiastically.

"Of course" Selene smiled "I have no idea why you're going though" 

"Curiosity" Tal replied, his eyes bright. Selene stared into his icy eyes for a moment before urging her tiger onwards and into the forest, leaving Tal and Nandieb trying to catch up. 

_"I wonder friend, why chose those three, three night elves... why not Thrall, Jaina or Furion, you cannot possibly wish for more toys, puppet master" The Guardian whispered "This is worthy of my attention, for these three are no more special than anybody else, true, they were on their way before you chose them, but I'm sure your toys would happily do anything for their prophet" He spat the last word contemptuously. He snarled and turned away, walking out into the forest "The board is set, puppet master, and you have moved the first pawn, and now, I will hammer you until you shriek for mercy. That is a promise" _

_Note: Well, please R&R and I'll have the next chapter up soon. _


	2. Tasting the shadows

_Note: Thanks to all who have reviewed, it is much appreciated. _

**Guardian of the Void**

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Chapter II: Tasting the shadows.

Selene clamped her jaws down on the piece of bread, her Frostsaber tiger clawing aimlessly at the ground next to her. Tal sat nearby, completely silent, ripping off pieces of bread and stuffing them in his mouth greedily and Nandieb could be found grazing off among the trees. 

"We'll be out of the forest soon" Tal told Selene quietly "Heading into the plains, away from the trees" Selene noted how her friend looked distinctly uncomfortable when he discussed leaving the forest, she couldn't help but smile.

"Surely a seasoned warden would be able to handle a little trip into plains?" She teased, Tal grinned.

"The chase is always, most vigorous out on the plains, nowhere for them to hide and nowhere for me to hide" He explained. Selene raised an eyebrow.

"Not going to say anything about the company?" She asked. Tal shook his head.

"I'm with a manic priestess and a sadistic Druid, its probably best I go into no more detail than that" Tal chuckled. Selene gasped incredulously.

"Manic? Me? You'll pay for that comment" She laughed, playfully lunging at him and knocking him to the floor. They playfully grappled on the floor for a few moments, with Tal eventually gaining the upper hand. 

"Am I interrupting something?" Nandieb asked, watching the two as he strolled into the clearing. Tal stood up and moved away from Selene, smiling weakly.

"No Nandieb, I just called Selene manic" Tal chuckled, Nandieb blinked.

"Manic? More like crazed dear boy" Nandieb trotted around the clearing slowly.

"Its time to go, pack up" 

"Right, are you going to-"Tal stopped abruptly, closing his mouth and straining his ears. Nandieb did the same, a soft growl forming in his throat.

"Can you hear that?" Nandieb asked, Tal nodded.

"Something is creeping up on us" He replied.

"We aren't creeping up on you" A voice said from the shadows, laughing slowly. As it spoke, a group of beings materialised from the shadows, people of only vague humanoid form and the texture of rippling darkness. They were unarmed, and their glowing eyes betrayed no sign of hostility as they bored into the three. Tal whipped his circular blade away from his belt and pointed it at one of the strange beings of darkness.

"Let us through" He snarled, the being he had pointed at shook his head and hurled himself at the Warden, a blade clashing into the Warden's own with the force to push him back.

_A blade? He was unarmed a moment ago! _Tal blinked behind the being and plunged the blade into its back.

Selene fired blasts of flaming energy at the approaching beings of darkness, the searing arrows whipped through the clearing, striking the void entities every time, doing nothing to stem the flow of them, she raised her arms up into the air, chanting under her breath. Stars began to emerge from the sea of blue above them; they plummeted to the earth, felling thousands of the void beings. Selene turned to Tal and Nandieb, both were fighting for their lives against a legion of shadows, materialising from the darkness and slashing at them with jagged swords. 

"Flee! We have to get away from them, there are too many!" She called. Nandieb nodded and raised his claw, the air rippled and the trees came to life, sweeping their branches and knocking the void beings away. Tal leapt on the back of Selene's Frostsaber and they were off, dashing away from the clearing at tremendous speed. The trees whizzed past them as they ran, behind them in the clearing, the horde of void beings chased after them, gathering speed as they ran. The Frostsaber ground to a halt as a group of void beings stepped into their path, surrounding them. Selene prepared herself to fight, aiming her crossbow. Abruptly, a blast of light cut through the forest, causing a void being to disintegrate.

"Down foul beings!" A voice cried out as a woman on a white horse galloped in, swinging a hefty hammer at a group of them and leaping off her horse. She held the body-length hammer of a paladin in both hands as a group of knights and footmen backed her up, hacking at the endless horde. The paladin raised her hammer, creating a golden haze around her, she swung the hammer like a madwoman, knocking the void beings and watching as they vanished. The clawed uselessly at her, several of them vanishing in a flash of light every time she cast a spell of holy light. The three Night Elves joined in the fray, firing bolts of flame and twirling knives at the void beings. With the aid of the humans and the truents , the void beings were beaten back, eventually raising their heads simultaneously, as if hearing some cry from far off, the took one last look at the people before them and ran. The paladin wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead.

"Hey, my name's Olivia, lieutenant of the Silver Hand" She told them "We were sent out as an early warning system for New Dalaran, come on, we'll take you to our camp, you must be hungry" The three Night Elves, despite being taken aback by her forward nature, agreed and followed her. 

The camp was small, just a few stables, some farms and a town hall. The paladin led the three Night Elves into her office and sat them down. Wearily glancing over them.

"You must be the elves" She told them "In truth, you weren't the people we intended to call for help, we originally wanted Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, but they are away from their grove and a far off in the Barrens, trying to convince the Centaurs to rally to their cause against Ner'zhul and the Undead, it would take them a fair few weeks to get here and by then, we may already have been conquered" Olivia sighed "So we're left with you three, we were rather hoping for an army" Selene scowled at the bold paladin.

"Do you expect us to take our defence force out because some pitiful humans want some help? Be grateful even I am here!" She snapped, Nandieb clamped his claw over her mouth.

"You will pay respect to our allies" The druid hissed before removing his hand and turning back to face the paladin.

"What do you know of their numbers?" Nandieb asked, Olivia shook her head.

"Nothing, but we know it is enough to almost devastate us" Olivia  replied "Stay here tonight, we will speed you on your way to New Dalaran at…when do you Night Elves work best?" 

"Night" Nandieb told her "The clue is in the name" Olivia grinned.

"Good, then you can stay here and rest until evening" The paladin told them. The three Night Elves nodded and left quietly. Olivia turned back to her work, paying no heed to the raven fluttering away from her window. 

_Note: I cannot help but think that this chapter really isn't up to scratch. I just wasn't as pleased with it as I am with other things I write._

_On a different note, does anybody have any ideas on how to make the 'Void Beings' interesting, right now they just seem very mundane. If you have any ideas, put them in a review, so far they can hide in the shadows and create weapons out of darkness. And their weaknesses are strong lights such as the paladin's holy light and _midday___ sunlight. _

_Any ideas, please tell me and of course R&R!_


	3. Tal's confession and the Void's Strike

_Note: Thanks to HuntressWarden for reviewing, no, on with the story!_

**Guardian of the Void**

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Chapter III: Tal's confession and the Void's Strike

Selene sat on the town hall's balcony, staring out across the humans; they practised for battle with Olivia, as they had been doing for the entire day. She had not seen any void beings attack throughout the afternoon, but she appreciated that the humans couldn't be too careful. 

"You seem tired, you should get some sleep before night fall" Tal grinned from behind her as he approached.

"If those void beings attack, I won't be awake to do anything if I go to sleep, I'm surprisingly difficult to wake up" She smiled, Tal nodded and sat down next to her.

"If you don't go to sleep, you'll fall off that tiger of yours in the morning" Tal replied, Selene shook her head. Tal sighed and turned to look at the people training below. 

"Everybody here is going to die, you know that?" He told her "There is no way that a few farms, a town hall and some stables will survive an attack by those…things" Selene shook her head.

"You're wrong, humans are stronger than that, I was talking to Olivia earlier today, they've fended off one or two attacks, there are some Orcs on the way to help"

"It will take more than just Orcs and humans to keep those shadows away, you could feel their power and so could I, every single living thing in this settlement will die unless they leave" Tal told her bitterly, Selene scowled at him. 

"Tell me Tal, are you actually capable of feeling anything apart from bitterness, cynicism, cruelty and anger?" Selene spat " I'm starting to believe that hunting down various criminals has given you the mindset of one"

"I'm being realistic, Selene" Tal said calmly, Selene laughed humourlessly.

"Where does hope fit into your realism Tal? Or what about love? Friendship even?" Selene snarled "You're emotionally incapable, Tal" Tal gritted his teeth and remained silent, Selene gazed at him with an expression of loathing and continued.

"Come on Tal! Tell me how you're being realistic, how you aren't planting false hopes" Selene said savagely "I want to hear what you have to say!" Tal finally snapped, standing up with his eyes blazing in rage.

"Emotionally incapable? That's a joke, I am ripped apart every day when I look at you and when you send harsh words in my direction, I fell in love with you centuries ago! But all I ever get back from you is glares and insults, I came on this mission in the hopes that you might fall in love with me, but now I realise you're unable to feel that" With that, Tal stormed away. 

"Wait!" Selene called, but Tal didn't stop, he merely continued walking, Selene stared after him with tears streaming down her face.

"I don't think that went very well" Nandieb muttered to Olivia as they watched, the paladin nodded.

"I agree, but still they call New Dalaran the city of love" She mused.

"Really?" Nandieb asked, Olivia shook her head.

"No, its actually just called New Dalaran" She told him, Nandieb nodded sagely.

"That makes more sense"

Night fell just a few hours later and Olivia went to collect the Night Elves and send them off, her troops had gone to sleep, all emitting loud snores. As Nandieb watched, he could swear he saw people moving among the shadows. He moved closer to the trees, interested to see who was there. There was a flash of green light and one of the trees raised a clawed arm into the sky, Nandieb ran just as it crashed into the ground.

"Treants!" He cried "But how?!" He waved his own hand and a group of trees appeared, attacking the ones that had just appeared. There was the strange cracking sound of blinking all over the base camp as thousands upon thousands of void beings appeared, all with their arms raised to the sky, where stars were starting to fall. The town bell rang and Olivia's troops hurried out. A mortar team sidled past Nandieb.

"We must defeat the dwarves" The white haired operator cried, his companion sighed and ran a nervous hand through his red hair.

"We are the dwarves" He replied and hurled a bomb at the treants, Nandieb hurried to tell him to watch out as a blast of flame struck the mortar team at the same time as a silvery white star striking them, there was a massive explosion, hurling Nandieb back. The stars still fell, striking the buildings and soldiers. All of the void beings were confined to one place, encased in beams of purple light. Many were holding bows and firing arrows of flame, others were hurling scythes. Nandieb could not explain how they were using Night Elf powers to himself, but he dismissed this thought and attacked one. Olivia was out, a shield of light encasing her while bright runes of light appeared above the head of the void beings, making them burst into dust under the holy light. A shockwave of light spread out from her body, causing several dead units to get up and continue attacking. A moment later, Tal and Selene were out, firing flaming arrows and fanning out knives everywhere.  The void beings continued to appear, their vaguely humanoid shapes raising swords high into the air as they struck at the armies with their borrowed powers. Olivia's face hardened and she raised a horn to her mouth, blowing a long call and crying;

"RETREAT!" She blew the horn again "FLEE THE SETTLEMENT!" Immediately the army started charging into the forest as green flashes of light wove their way through the branches. The treants broke out, raising their branch like arms and crashing them down on the army, roots shot up and trapped many of the fleeing soldiers, including Selene and her tiger. She struggled in vain as a treant prepared to smash her to pieces. A hissing sound echoed through the air as a scythe flew past her, embedding itself in the treant and leaking its poison. A moment later, thousands of knives were stuck in it and it fell to the ground. Tal hurried over to Selene, picking up his scythe and cutting the vines, deliberately leaving the vine around her mouth till last, Selene didn't have time to speak before Tal ran off. She mounted her Frostsaber again and bounded into the trees following everybody else.

They regrouped a little way away, safe from the void beings. There remained only a handful of survivors from the attack, numbering just twenty including Olivia and the three Night Elves. Selene walked over to Tal.

"Listen, Tal" Selene began; Tal remained silent, staring out into the forest. A moment later, Olivia gave the order for them all to move, Selene stared at Tal for a moment, before walking away, a solitary tear making its way down her cheek. 

_Okey dey then! Review and oranges and lemons will fall upon you! _ 


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